


Payphone

by marvelling



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 04:39:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1926915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelling/pseuds/marvelling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve gets a troubling late night phonecall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Payphone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [This is for Holly who has been waiting for a fic for at least a hundred years](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=This+is+for+Holly+who+has+been+waiting+for+a+fic+for+at+least+a+hundred+years), [Love you xo](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Love+you+xo).



> This is my first 'published' story and it's not actually my best, but I'm working on improving my short stories. I usually write about a novel's worth so it's taken a lot to cut it down. I appreciate criticism but not outright hate so please, if it's not constructive criticism, please don't comment negatively.  
> I know I tend to focus on dialogue a lot, I'm sorry.  
> Thanks and I hope you enjoy.

The ringing of the phone woke him up.

Steve groggily opened an eye and reached out for the receiver. “Hello?” He grunted. Before another word was uttered Steve’s hand shot out behind him, grabbing nothing but rumpled sheets. “Where are you?”

There was a pause. Steve pictured him running his hands through his hair, his eyes squeezed shut. A strangled sound came through the phone.

“It’s okay,” Steve soothed, dragging a hand across his face. “Buck, it’s okay.”

“I don’t know, Steve.” Bucky took several deep breaths. “I don’t know where I am. I mean I don’t think I know. Maybe I’ve been here before...” more deep breaths. “I don’t fucking know!”

Steve heard glass shatter. “Calm down,” he said softly, pulling on sweats and a tight white t-shirt. “Tell me what’s around you.”

“I feel like I’ve been running for hours, Steve.” Bucky whispered.

“You probably have.” Steve sighed, thumping down on the bed to tie his shoes. “Tell me what’s around you,” he repeated.

“Trees.” Bucky growled slightly. “Nothing but fucking trees.”

Steve stopped tying his shoes. “You’re using a payphone.”

“Yeah?”

“Why’s there a payphone in the middle of a forest?”

“I don’t fucking know! For emergencies? I don’t fucking-” he stopped suddenly.

“Bucky?”

No reply.

“Buck? You there?” Steve couldn’t breathe. “Buck please answer me.”

Silence.

“JAMES BUCHANAN BARNES, ANSWER ME.”

“It’s a Hydra base.”

Steve felt as though he’d been punched in the gut. “You’re sure?”

“100%.”

“Get out of there. Now.”

“It’s too late, Steve.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Bucky listen-”

“I love you, Steve.”

“Don’t you fucking dare-”

*click*

Steve pulverized the phone in his fist. Tearing off his clothes, he redressed in his suit and grabbed his shield. He called Natasha and Sam. They were on their way. He called Tony to trace the payphone. He was ‘on it’.

It’s too late.

I’m sorry.

I love you, Steve.

He shook the words from his mind. No way. Not again. He would not lose Bucky again.

They’d come too far. Things were just starting to seem normal. They were living together, just like old times. Only now they didn’t sleep in the same bed to prevent Steve catching hypothermia, they slept together because they knew the value of time and they knew they had to make the most of it with people that they loved and they loved each other. To deny that just because it was deemed by some narrow minded people as ‘wrong’ didn’t make sense to either of them.

Sleeping in the same bed also meant that Steve was there when Bucky’s nightmares hit. Steve was there to hold his thrashing body down and to murmur soothing comforts. He was there to push the sweat soaked hair from Bucky’s troubled face as he held the trembling man to his chest. Steve was there to listen to whatever horrors terrorized Bucky and to reassure him that everything was going to be okay.

Sometimes Bucky would wake up from a nightmare and he wouldn’t be Bucky at all. The Winter Soldier was there. His cold blue eyes regarding Steve with hostility as he stood in the corner of their darkened bedroom, knife in hand. Steve would talk him down, remind him that he was James Buchanan Barnes; his best friend; his partner and that he was safe at home. Steve would approach him slowly, hands outstretched in front of him, beckoning to Bucky. Reluctantly the soldier would take his hand. The touch of Steve’s skin usually brought him back to the here and now and he’d fall into his partner’s arms, clutching him as close as possible before they returned to bed, Steve curled around him, protecting him from the demons in his mind.

“You wouldn’t let me hurt you, would you?” Bucky had asked quietly one night.

Steve hadn’t answered. Because the answer was yes, he would let Bucky hurt him. Bucky was the only person in the universe he refused to fight.

“You’re not asleep, punk, answer me.” 

Steve sighed, tightening his arms around the other man. “You already know the answer.” He felt Bucky tense up. “I’m sorry, but I won’t-”

“I could kill you, Steve. Then where the hell would I be? I’d fucking lose it completely. If I ever-”

“You won’t. You didn’t before,” he reminded.

“That’s because I let you talk. What if I woke up and slit your throat while you slept?”

“Shut up,” Steve groaned. “You’re not gonna do that, it’s too easy. It’s a waste of your talents.”

Bucky tried his hardest not to smile. The punk was right. For some reason the Winter Soldier loved to show off. He didn’t go for the easy kill. He liked a challenge.

“You know I’m right.” Steve smirked, kissing him behind the ear.

“Punk.” He twisted his head to meet Steve’s lips.

“Jerk,” Steve murmured against Bucky’s mouth.

“I love you Steve.”

I love you, Steve.

***

Bucky had sleepwalked before too, but never this far. Never without Steve close on his heels, cautiously watching over him, making sure he was okay. Steve always felt him leave the bed, always heard him leave through their bedroom window and down or up the fire escape. But not this time.

And he was furious with himself. He promised he’d keep Bucky safe. He promised him that he’d never go back, never get taken back.

“What if they come for me?” Bucky asked as they lay in bed in their underwear watching 24, masses of Indian food spread out in front of them.

“I’ll do what you’ve always done for me,” Steve replied, eyes still glued to the screen. “I’ll grab them by the scruff of their neck and kick them in the ass.”

Bucky grabbed the remote, pausing the episode. “I’m serious, Steve. What if they’ve got some brain controlling device somewhere and they can push a button and I’m back to being their favourite weapon?”

Sighing, he forced himself to meet Bucky’s anxious eyes. “Buck, Stark checked you for all that stuff. Thoroughly, if I recall.” Steve smirked and shoveled more food in his mouth.

Bucky’s cheeks reddened slightly. “Yeah well, what if he missed something?”

“Bucky,” Steve groaned, making the other man’s hair stand on end. He loved how Steve said his name. “I’m not gonna let them take you, alright? You’re my… what is it, Clint says? Bae?” he smirked again.

“You’re such an asshole,” he narrowed his eyes, but grinned at him anyway.

Steve kissed his cheek. “Love you, Buck.”

“I love you, Steve.”

I love you, Steve.

***

Natasha and Sam arrived together, suited up and ready to follow Steve anywhere. He had just received the co-ordinates from Stark.

“You okay, man?” Sam asked.

Steve nodded curtly, clenching his jaw. “Let’s go get this jerk.”

Natasha didn’t ask any questions, but assessed Steve with her quick, inquisitive eyes. She drove the truck without speaking. Sam made idle chat, obviously trying to diffuse some of Steve’s tension. Steve appreciated his effort. Sam was one of the nicest guys Steve had ever met.

“He’ll be fine,” Sam shrugged, giving up on trying to hold a conversation about anything other than Bucky. “Barnes is tough. He can fuck them up pretty bad if they try anything. He underestimates himself.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah I know. He just shouldn’t have to.”

Sam chewed his lip for a moment. “What happened tonight?”

“Nothing,” Steve sighed. “I came home around ten after helping out at that fire downtown, he made me grilled cheese while I showered then we watched 24.”

“You guys haven’t finished it yet?”

“The new season just aired, Sam.” Steve waved his hand. “Then we… went to bed.”

Sam folded his arms and grinned. “Gotcha.” His grin widened. “He tire you out?”

Steve narrowed his eyes. “He must have.” He run a hand across his face. “I didn’t hear him at all, Sam. I always hear him or feel him getting up… but I didn’t this time and now he could be god knows where.”

“We’re coming up to the forest now, Cap.” Nat piped up.

“Stop the truck. We’ll walk in.”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “It’s pitch black and full of Hydra, yeah let’s just stroll in.”

“It’s also silent, Sam.”

The man rolled his eyes, but followed Steve’s orders and got out of the truck.

“Flashlight?” Natasha offered.

“Nah, imma just use my night vision. Of course I want a flashlight. The fuck is wrong with you?” Sam snapped, taking it from her and wrapping his coat tighter around him.

“I think he’s afraid of the dark,” she whispered to Steve.

“You’re right, Cap. It is silent. I can hear everything.” Sam glared at the assassin.

She shrugged and flipped on her flashlight.

“Ain’t nothing wrong with bein’ uneasy ‘bout walkin’ into a dark forest full of neo-nazis in the middle of the night in the freezin’ cold.” Sam grumbled.

“I don’t think Barnes came in this way,” Natasha told them. “He’ll have used the trees or at least stuck to the tree line. The road is too open and exposed.”

“Yeah I think you’re right.” Steve secured his shield and flicked on his own flashlight, scanning the road in front of them. “But the payphone has got to be on this road.”

The trio set down the road, Natasha scanning the left, Steve the right and Sam keeping his eyes forward and upward.

“Where’s your second favourite bird guy?” Sam asked casually.

Natasha rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t need to know. He may not be anywhere. He might be in a Hooters somewhere, elbow deep in a bucket of chicken wings.”

“I thought you two were together?” Sam failed to hide his pleased grin.

“Eyes up.” Nat said curtly.

“Glaza zah.”

The trio whipped round without hesitation, Natasha and Sam with guns at the ready, Steve armed with his shield.

“Woah,” Bucky’s metallic arm glinted in the beams of their flashlights as he leant against a tree.

“Were you speaking Russian?” Sam exhaled with relief.

“Yeah. I said ‘Eyes behind.’ You’re all terrible at surveillance.” He grinned smugly.

Steve sprinted to him and embraced him in a tight hug. “You fucking jerk,” he hissed in his ear, kissing his cheek.

Bucky laughed, relieved Steve hadn’t seemed to notice the red splattered across his arm and his blood soaked clothes. “God I love you, Steve.”


End file.
